Go by train: fun adventures via MAX

The weather is, hopefully, going to get warmer soon and you’ll need a method for getting around Portland. You don’t have a car, no bike (Really, no bike in Portland?), and you are vehemently opposed to paying those ridiculous surge prices of Lyft or Uber, so how are you to cope?

You can walk wherever you want to go, but that just leaves you stuck in downtown Portland, which does not offer much to do compared to the east side. Maybe you want to see your favorite animal, let’s say an elephant. Well, you can do that at the Oregon Zoo! Wait, how are you supposed to even get there in the first place?

Check out TriMet’s MAX.

It’s easy to use, and to get to the zoo you don’t even need to use a bus (which honestly can be quite intimidating for first time users).

Let’s say you’re at University Pointe apartments by Portland State; all you need to do is catch a Yellow or Green Line train from the nearest MAX station, get off at Pioneer Courthouse Square Station, and catch the Blue Line west toward Beaverton. (Just make sure you get off at the Washington Park MAX Station!)

Another fun place to go using the MAX is out to Cascade Station by the airport. I mean, who doesn’t love wasting time walking around IKEA imagining the perfect kitchen, living room and bedroom. You can even get a bite to eat at IKEA’s in-store restaurant! I realize it’s quite easy to get lost in IKEA; maybe Google can add IKEA to its mobile maps service. That’s just a suggestion, though.

If you finish your adventure at IKEA, you can head on over to Best Buy and check out the latest electronics, or maybe go relax at Starbucks and snag some coffee along with some frozen yogurt from YoCream!, because who doesn’t like frozen yogurt?

While Cascade Station is the second to last stop on the Red Line toward the airport, you’ll get a chance to see parts of Portland that aren’t anything like downtown. It’s practically a different city way out there!

Wherever you end up going on the MAX, make sure you have a ticket with you. The fines are hefty for anyone caught without a ticket—a minimum of $175—which makes that $5 you spent for an all-day pass seem like nothing.